Anybody here who has ever seen The Golden Girls may recall an episode where Rose's young granddaughter Charley came to Miami to visit her. It turns out that the girl who played Charley died at 22 from a heroin overdose. It turns out that she was tested at 2 years old and found to have a genius IQ and she was reading Hemingway by the age of 6. In my opinion, doesn't seem to have done her any good to know she was a genius, and I wonder if there's a connection because John Belushi was a very intelligent child too.

Now, I don't know how or why people decide to have toddlers tested for genius IQs because at that age, how do they determine that?, but anyway, would you? My answer, hell no, if they are geniuses, it'll show through on its own, they don't need a test confirming it and they don't need to be carrying that around before they're even in grade school.

Well, I think I would have had my son evaluated had he shown something amazing like reading at a crazy young age or doing difficult math at age five.

I think a really gifted child needs to be understood early on so they are not in an educational environment that #1 doesn't foster their intelligence and #2 bores them.

It's a parent's responsibility to give their children, gifted or not, the greatest chance to achieve their potential. Presumably the IQ's of actual geniuses such as Beethoven, Galileo and Newton were over the 140 point level (as measured by a modern test) but a high IQ per these tests may be a mark of intelligence but not genius. To paraphrase Mrs. Gump, genius is as genius does.

IMO all kids should have their IQ's tested, just to see where they are and how it can apply to their ability to learn. As far as letting them know where they stand...if they are above average, I would definitely tell them. Average, eh...maybe/maybe not. Below average, nah...

I doubt I'd care much about IQ.

The problem with the IQ thing is that it is often tested once... then the child is labeled, and stuck in a label for the remainder of their school career.

I was told in 6th grade that i was 3 points below the minimum IQ for the "gifted and honors" classes. What made me laugh was that the only thing about this classification was that they got philosophy/literature/latin, etc once a week. I was the only one in their class that did not get this instruction. It singled me out and ostracized me... i was too smart for "normal" kids but not smart enough for the "ACES" as they called it. Even with teacher recommendation, the school would not advance me.

Later, when my mom finally told me and my bro about our father's suicide... she put us in Children's Hosp psyche ward. They did IQ tests on all patients. It turned out that none of us that were there at the time were below 135. They said that kids with higher IQs tend to analyze, evaluate, and internalize their environment more than other kids. This causes a lot of problems as they might be brighter, but are not emotionally mature enough to process the effects of life's happenings. Made sense. They basically said my bro who tested at like 153, was too damn smart, and that caused him to be fearful of everything ... get stressed out... and want to avoid ppl & life in general. Luckily for my bro...he eventually worked his issues out, but it took a long time.

Supernova wrote:

Anybody here who has ever seen The Golden Girls may recall an episode where Rose's young granddaughter Charley came to Miami to visit her. It turns out that the girl who played Charley died at 22 from a heroin overdose. It turns out that she was tested at 2 years old and found to have a genius IQ and she was reading Hemingway by the age of 6. In my opinion, doesn't seem to have done her any good to know she was a genius, and I wonder if there's a connection because John Belushi was a very intelligent child too.

Now, I don't know how or why people decide to have toddlers tested for genius IQs because at that age, how do they determine that?, but anyway, would you? My answer, hell no, if they are geniuses, it'll show through on its own, they don't need a test confirming it and they don't need to be carrying that around before they're even in grade school.

I believe my child is gifted... others have commented on it too. I don't get her tested even though part of me wants to because its just a label. I know her value... a number doesnt change that. She's intelligent and I push her to learn and explore and thats all I can do.. numbers of intelligence will never change that.